


so take us to the brink of deliverance

by atlantisairlock



Series: Hello Operator, Please Give Me Number Nine Nine [3]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Team Nikita, Ensemble Cast, F/F, Gen, Happy Ending, Implied Relationships, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 00:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3229442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlantisairlock/pseuds/atlantisairlock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>6 years ago, the team was taken from all they ever knew and forced to become assassins for a secret unit of the government that went rogue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	so take us to the brink of deliverance

**Author's Note:**

> title from 'shakespeare in love' by layla kaylif.

_6 years ago, we were taken from all we ever knew and forced to become assassins for a unit of the government that has now gone rogue._

_Or maybe it's not so secret. Maybe it's just killing people who don't deserve it. Killing innocent adults and children who're just trying to live normal lives and do the best they can. It's not a black-ops program. It's not the CIA. It's just..._

_gone rogue._

_They have used us. They have destroyed us. They have turned us against the people we've been trying to protect all our lives._

_We escaped. And now they're hunting us._

_But what they don't know is that we're not just prey. We're not just sitting around waiting for them to pounce on our backs and eat us alive. We're hunting them. They're big, and powerful, and they've got a whole line of firepower. But that's not going to stop us._

_Together we're going to take them down, one mission at a time. And the last words they breathe before the end -_ _will be our names._

 

 

And here's the thing, Amy muses as she looks at the first page of her diary. It's a thick, sturdy leather-bound ensemble filled from cover to cover with details of their entire journey; Terry suggested she turn it into her memoirs once they finished their mission. From the very beginning, the six of them hiding under an abandoned bridge and taking turns keeping vigil against petty thieves and giant rats, all the way to right now, just a few hours to their final assault. Here's the thing - she's scared.

Everything they've done for four years has led up to this. Days upon weeks upon months liaising with moles, hacking into impenetrable systems, amassing information that will bring down the organisation for good. They're ready. They're more than ready. Rosa has been threatening bloody murder for weeks. 

But she's not. 

The shackles have been on her ankles for years, to the point where she's terrified of giving them up, because she's gotten so used to walking with them that she's no longer sure if she can once they've been removed. Charles said something about Stockholm syndrome, but Amy thinks that maybe it's just the fact that her life has become so centred around destruction, she's forgotten what it means to rebuild.

 

 

"What are you going to do after this?" Amy asks Gina, who raises one eyebrow at her like she's lost her marbles. "Are you kidding? Once all the shit has died down, I'm flying to the Maldives and living the rest of my  _life_ out there in the lap of luxury."

Which is  _so_ Gina, of course, and Amy guesses it was probably a bad idea asking her first, because that's not what she foresees for herself once they're done. Strange how easy it was to see the light at the end of the tunnel when she was holding a flashlight in one hand and a baseball bat in the other, curled into a ball under a bridge and jumping at every noise she heard. Stranger still, how much harder it is  _now._

When she thinks about  _them..._ the team didn't start referring to themselves as a collective until their first real proper gunfight when a mission got botched and Charles leapt in front of Rosa and took a bullet for her, and they all stood over him in the underground makeshift hospital with the sudden realisation that every single one of them would have done the same for him. Necessity has bound them together all this time, and this is all Amy knows as family. She doesn't want to lose them, lose  _this,_ lose Jake's humour and Charles' optimism and Gina's wit and Terry's strength and Rosa's ferocity. She can't see them fall apart. She can't.

 

 

"We'll be fine, you know."

Rosa has a superpower, which is being able to find anyone who needs a reassuring word at the most opportune time. She sprawls herself on Amy's cramped bed, her shoes hanging over the edge. "We've seen stuff that nobody else could ever even come close to  _believing,_ let alone really understanding. I know that doesn't sound reassuring, like, at all, but trust me, Santiago."  _Santiago,_ yeah, that's another thing she's going to miss; her surname being used as a term of affection and trust. "We are family. We will always be, even if Gina ditches us for Hawaii or where the fuck ever, or Jake heads off to Quantico and Terry goes and searches for the kids he left behind. Okay?"

Amy swallows hard, although she nods gratefully at Rosa with a smile. "I just... I don't know what to do and where to go after this, Rosa. I can't remember a life beyond escaping and chasing and running any longer. I don't know who to be. Who I  _am."_

There's a smirk on Rosa's face which makes Amy melt. "Come with me and find out." Her voice is softer than she's used to, and Amy would be lying to herself if she said she hadn't been wishing for this ever since she first crashed through a window and hit the ground running. "But right now, we've got a battle to win, all right? We started this fight together, all six of us. And you know this is how it's supposed to end, for better or for worse."

Amy cracks a smile, gets to her feet and sets her diary on the desk with a finality that says  _I'll be back for you._ "Let's go."

 

 

_10 years ago, we were taken from all we ever knew and forced to become assassins for a unit of the government that has now been named, shamed, and is being rebuilt to take a better form than its previous incarnations._

_They used us. But no, they didn't destroy us. We fought back, and we won, and we salvaged ourselves from the rubble and debris. We are stronger now, and we know exactly what we're capable of._

_If this was just a story, then this would be an epilogue. Perhaps it is, in a sense._

_We are still a family. Rosa was right. She's right about a lot of things, really. Charles is off running a franchise which has taken over the world, of some sort. Terry's found his kids again, and he's still bugging me to turn this into my memoirs. Jake's in the Maldives with Gina, and they send photos every single day._

_They think Rosa and I are nuts._

_But here's the thing. This is my life. This is all I could ever imagine myself doing - going on the ground, fighting against injustice of all sorts, speaking up for the voiceless. This week we're heading to Bali with a crack team and Rosa's planning to crush some drug traffickers' skulls. They've been smuggling drugs in through human mules and more than two hundred people have died, so I'm not going to stop her._

_This is probably why they think Rosa and I are nuts._

_But I get it now. I get it the way I didn't the hours before we busted the NYPD._ _The real gift isn't freedom. It's what we get to do with it._

_I don't know about them._

_But I could never just sit around on a beach anyway._

 

 

"Amy!" Rosa yells from outside, muffled by the oak-panelled door. "Are you ready to go? We're due in fifteen!"

Amy smiles and puts her pen down, tucking her trusty diary into her carry-on luggage and shrugging on her jacket. "I'm coming!"


End file.
